1974 Team Cyrillic

The picture below was sent to me from a friend in Leningrad in the mid-1980s.

Team Canada 1974, stars from the rival WHA, taking on Kharlamov, Mikhailov, and Tretiak two years after the big one. (results at the bottom).

Rick Ley, second in the top row, was a boyhood friend growing up in Orillia, who knocked my front tooth out by accident when throwing a baseball. And he borrowed my hockey gloves and never gave them back.

Five players suited up at one time or another with the Habs – JC Tremblay, Rejean Houle, Ralph Backstrom, Marc Tardif, and Frank Mahovlich.

Three players on this Team Canada ’74 squad also played in the historic 1972 Summit Series before bolting to the WHA – Paul Henderson, Mahovlich, and Pat Stapleton.

Down the left side are coaches Billy Harris, Bobby Hull, and Pat Stapleton.

This WHA team was hoping they would do better than the ’72 squad for bragging rights and give the WHA a massive boost. But it didn’t turn out that way, although they were fairly close on the scoreboard.